Karachi gets its first public water sports facility on Hawkesbay’s sandy beach
Aim of municipality was to make resources available to ordinary people
Karachi: The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has established its first public facility on Karachi’s coastline for water sports for the beachgoers visiting the famous sandy Hawkesbay beach.
The KMC Arabian Sea Water Sports Centre has been established under the public-private partnership mode of development.
Speaking at the inauguration, Karachi’s Administrator, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, said the water sports facilities were available to beachgoers all over the world. However, the same recreational opportunities are not available on Karachi’s coast.
“The elites of the city have the resources used to go to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Dubai for beach-related recreation like jet ski, but rest of the Karachiites didn’t have any such opportunity,” he said.
He said that Karachi’s municipality had set a very good precedent by establishing such a recreational facility on the city’s coast in the shortest possible time.
He said Karachiites at a distance of just 30 minutes’ drive would now get water sports facilities like snorkelling, deep-sea diving, boating, and jet skis.
He said Karachi’s municipality had the aim to expand the facility along with setting up beautiful restaurants for the beachgoers.
The Karachi Administrator said the Hawkesbay beach had been selected for establishing the water sports centre as the coastal strip attracted picnickers from all over Pakistan.
He told the audience at the inaugural ceremony that earlier the Sindh government had rebuilt the roads in the area to improve accessibility to the beach. “Now a person moving from Merewether Tower (Karachi’s centre) could reach this attractive portion of the beach after a drive of just 30 minutes,” said Barrister Wahab.
He said the Sindh government had spent its resources to improve road infrastructure and recreational facilities for the public after improvement in the law and order situation in Karachi.
He mentioned that the Karachi Development Authority had earlier completed the project to develop a new beachfront on Manora Island that is now visited by thousands of people.